Sunday, October 15, 2006

For your amusement

In making room on the bookshelf by my computer desk for new purchases, I came across some older hardcovers - shortly to be relocated downstairs - with covers that were too irresistible not to mention. (So I didn't - resist, that is.) Here they are.

Did you know Cher was posing for book jackets back in 1975?

This is Costain's novel about Attila the Hun. Three questions come to mind:

(1) Is the horse on steroids?(2) How is she managing to stay on?(3) What's up with the purple leather boots?

The jacket includes a positive blurb from Rosemary Sutcliff, so this may be a case of don't-judge-the-book... etc. But aside from the interesting title, who knew that disco was so popular in 1850s Sussex? (Mark thinks the hero resembles Derek Sanderson from the Boston Bruins.)

Hilarious. I actually remember reading Taylor Caldwell's "Romance of Atlantis" when I was about 13 years old. It was well-written but very fanciful, based on a dream/vision the author said she had. Her serious historical novels were better, such as "Captains and the Kings" and "Grandmother and the Priests."